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Topic: Asylum Films

In case you don't know- Asylum's MO is to rip off other high-profile films.

I just rented "Alien Origins", which I didn't know was a rip-off of Promethous. But get this, the first "trailer" on the disc was a compilation of the shitty films that Asylum has done. It end with title cards saying- "15 years of quality entertainment", and then "You're welcome."

Re: Asylum Films

Re: Asylum Films

I read a article in Dark Side magazine about Asylum films. Interestingly the guy, Mark Atkins who has directed a lot of them was roommates with the guys who did Blair Witch. He did his own original film around the time of Blair Witch called Night Orchid.

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Believe it or not- Alien Origin was actually one of the better Asylum films! IMDB has it at 2/10, but I'm giving it a 5/10. The plot was nonsense (go figure), but the acting wasn't too bad, the few FX were OK, the audio was fine, and the cinematography (minus the shaky cam) was nicely done.

It actually reminded me of Predator, on 1/50th of the budget and no stars.

The first review on IMDB was from a guy who said this was "the worst Asylum and worst found footage film ever." This dude really really needs to watch more movies. Like Asylum's 2012 apocalypse movie or Strawberry Estates (found footage film).

I don't recommend this film, but if you run across it at 4AM on TV, it's OK.

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The Asylum have always been bad, they just rip off everything that has become successful in hopes for people to buy it when confused or not totally informed about the movie. Change tiny aspects of their type of movie, way worse acting and overall just ripping off crap. I remember way back I didn't know of them got 'Paranormal Entity' thinking it could be okay, the most obvious rip-off ever.

Re: Asylum Films

Awwww c'mon Az Full Moon videos weren't that bad lol. The Subspecies series is a big fav of mine and how can you not love the original Puppetmaster? Cheezy yes, but I loved them. I actually found a 12" doll of Blade from Puppetmaster and gave it to my mom for her birthday many years ago.

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^^I was actually thinking more along the lines of when Full Moon started to hit Subspecies/PuppetMaster/Trancers 3 and beyond. They were quite good in the beginning (I even met Band once at a convention), but they they slid so badly downhill they became a joke. I mean they go from The Dead Hate the Living to Puppet Master vs. Demonic Toys 2, anyone?

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I'm with you on Full Moon, Azzie. Just a couple weeks ago in fact I hit up youtube to see if they had any Full Moon Video Zones (they do, by the way, but not a great many). I was a fan of the first Puppet Master...then the Subspecies flicks, Pit and the Pendulum, even the first Doll Man. But once they developed sequelitis and started pitting their properties against one another things started to go south. Then came stuff like Head of the Family and Bad Channels. By that point, all hope was lost.

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Oh, and as for Asylum, I've only bothered with one of their movies and it was only because I was killing time until an episode of 30 Rock came on.

It was their Thor movie, which like most of their other films they rushed into production when it was announced that a big budget Thor flick would be going into production. It's actually not a bad business move on their part; rush a movie with a similar story and title and get it on the video shelves so that folks will think it's the other, big budget movie. By the time they watch it and realize it's shit, it's too late; they've already spent their money. That works out well for Asylum; for the viewer, not so much.

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I saw The Dead Hate the Living when it first came out on video back in '00. I really...really disliked it.

As for Gingerbread Man 2...y'know, there are b-movies I am cheerfully willing to subject myself to, and there are b-movies that just scream, "Lon, dude, you are not going to like me" so I don't bother with them. And having already seen the first Gingerbread Man flick, I can say that part 2 falls in the latter camp.

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I wanted to like The Dead Hate the Living -- I actually did like that muscle-bound zombie make-up, with the missing nose and upper lip -- but it felt like director Dave Parker was more interested in proving his own horror fan-ship (fan-hood?) to the viewer, having characters wear Evil Dead t-shirts, making clumsy references to other, better, horror films...after a while I was like, dude, tell a fucking story already!

And don't get me started on most of the other zombie make-up. There's one guy you can see plain as day that they didn't even bother to blend the edges of his face prosthetic. And while I can forgive a few blunders like that on this level of filmmaking if it's otherwise obvious that care and genuine effort had been put into the film, I just don't feel it. The movie felt, to me, like some guys deciding on the fly "Hey, we've got a free weekend -- let's make a movie!"

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Yeah Asylum movies may be bad, but people will watch 'em any ways to see how bad they and more money goes torwards them so they can make another shitfest. I also feel this way about SyFy original movies, and they're all basically hokey acting, bad editing, and cheesy effects.